Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Olympics and Mental Health Clinics

With the budget cuts, 4 of 12 city mental health clinics in Chicago are being closed. All of these 4 are in predominantly Black or Latino neighborhoods, none are in predominantly White or "Mixed" neighborhoods. Of the clinics in predominantly Black or Latino neighborhoods, half will close. Of the clinics in predominantly White or Mixed neighborhoods, none will close. 3 of the 4 clinics being closed also just happen to be near the proposed sites for the olympics (Washington Park).

They say they can't come up with the $1.2 million to keep them open... but Chicago just spent OVER 50 MILLION on the olympic bid and also got a bunch of $$ from privatizing parking meters.

STOP (Southside Together Organizing for Power) has information about public hearings, protests and how to write the mayor on their website http://www.stopchicago.org

8 comments:

I am so happy you have kept abreast of the information in the community. It is amazing how they are closing all the clinics that support the areas bordering the Washington Pk site for the proposed 2016 Olympics.

Mayor Daley, private devolopers, and non-profit poverty pimps such as Bishop Brazier, Leon Finney, University of Chicago, and others are in collaboration for a major land grab of the Southside which is just a modern day version of Urban Renewal. They are closing and decreasing sevices at Southside hospitals and clinics. The University of Chicago, a privately owned, tax payer funded non-profit hospital, is turning away black and latino community residents from the emergency rooms, some staff even going so far to say that "We dont take public aid patients."

When they began their big media circus, announcing their bid for the 2016 Olympics, their first lie was there would be NO DISPLACEMENT. Now its they will be using eminent domain to take our homes - at THEIR Market value, and renters will be given 90 days to flee their long-time communities, and, pack up and move.

They have systematically begun to shut down all our support systems, in the name of budget cuts. All of these things are just Mayor Daley and his profit seeking poverty pimps overarching plan to push poor people of color out of the city, to make way for the wealthy white upper class.

They've got methodically initiated to be able to banned just about all our own service methods, in the label involving spending budget pieces. Many of these issues are merely Gran Daley as well as their earnings searching for lower income pimps overarching decide to force poor people involving coloring from the metropolis, to make opportinity for the actual well-off white upper class.